Self-Hosted vs Cloud-Hosted

We are currently self-hosted, but are having issues with connectivity and server overloads. We have problems connecting for check-in, and overloads when we have sign up for groups in Arena. I'm thinking these are all issues having to do with our particular server. Does anyone else have these kinds of problems being self-hosted?

I'm also curious what people's experience has been with cloud-hosting? Any issues? How does support handle any issues that come up? Any connectivity issues?

I'm not sure the type of server we have but I do know it is old. We have a tech company that runs the server for us. Also we run around 2000 on a sunday. We're really just trying to figure out if we should pull the trigger with getting a new server or to host with shelby.

Well if you prefer to be self-hosted, and can make an investment in a new server (we have the Dell VRTX) which would cost around $30,000 depending on your needs.

I can't speak into the hosted solution much but I believe you lose some customization abilities. I don't know for sure, but I think you can't have a developer license if you are hosted. But if you don't plan to customize much and don't have an IT person on staff the hosted solution may be more beneficial to you so you don't have to deal with updates, security, maintenance and backups.

If you do want to stay self-hosted I would talk to your tech company and let them know what your problems are having. They could recommend a new server to you or test and see where the bottleneck is.

Our self hosted system has issues as well. Recently we have deployed test servers in the cloud and everything is working except printing labels for checkin (but I understand that we can get around that) In my limited testing, the cloud environment seems to perform much better. We have about 7000 on a Sunday between 3 campuses.

Greg, I have a different question for you - about multi campuses. We are going to be going to multi campuses and I am wondering if I could ask you a few questions concerning how you set up your check in for your children's ministry. If you are okay with that, please email me at bwilliamson@lwcc.org.